Rustler Spotting

Artemis is a “Rustler 36”. Only 125 of these boats were ever built; each one according to the wishes of the new owner – they were built when ordered and not “for the showroom”. One of the boats was wrecked and another was recently abandoned in the South Pacific during the Golden Globe Race so there are 123 out and about spread across the world.

We have a list of all 125 boats, who owns them and what differentiates them. Therefore whenever we see another Rustler 36, Neill scurries to the list to look it up. The West Coast of Scotland is a Rustler nest and we got quite used to meeting others. In Lochmaddy one berthed next to us and the owner came over for a chat. In the Outer Hebrides there were only two boats anchored in Vatersay Bay and the other one was also a Rustler 36.

Dan Hogarth and Crew on Rustler 36 no. 108, Eschaton

Falmouth (where they were built) gave us another great Rustler spotting opportunity but since we left the UK we have been Rustler-less. Many people recognized our boat especially after a sister vessel won the Golden Globe and another came second. In Spain a Frenchman greeted us as “Monsieur et Madame Rustler” and in the Caribbean, the skipper of a huge luxury catamaran congratulated us on owning a “real” yacht.

Last week we sailed in to a lonely bay at the back of a small island in the Grenadines and, amongst the blocky white catamarans saw a Rustler 36. We sailed slowly past and invited the skipper and crew for coffee. Neill checked “the list” and was stunned to find that here, in the middle of nowhere, we had met the only other Rustler owned by a Hogarth – Dan Hogarth. Coffee on board was followed by drinks on the beach and Dan proposed us for membership of the Ocean Cruising Club.

And then today just north of Grenada we passed Rustler 36 number 15 heading north. Much waving took place on both vessels but they didn’t answer our radio call. A shame as the boat is from Chichester which we visited last summer.

The view from Fort Hill

Today we are anchored just off Union Island and decided to go for a walk before we hit the fruit market and shops. As always when we are out walking, we took the road that went uphill – there is a reason Max didn’t used to join us on our walks. We walked to the top of Fort Hill which is directly above the bay and offers great views in all directions. From the old fort we had a fantastic overview of the islands and reefs that have been our sailing area the last week.

Looking north

1 is Canouan Island where we anchored in Rameau Bay. 2 is Horseshoe reef where we enjoyed the turtles swimming past. 3 is Petit Tabac, our very own coral island where we spent the night anchored alone.

Looking south

4 is Palm Island with its stunning beach. 5. is Mopion Reef with its straw roof and fast Internet. 6 is the island of Petit St. Vincent with the ridiculously expensive drinks. And 7. is Roundabout Reef with us at anchor just to the left of it.

Fast Internet everywhere (except Germany)

If you believed the Bavarian government, then Germany has the best Internet in the world and Bavaria has the best in Germany. That is absolute rubbish! There are whole villages in Germany where the Internet is slow or non-existent.

We have a tiny house and a vineyard at the end of a remote side valley in deepest Croatia. There we have fast Internet per LTE mobile phone network.

Anchored off the Cape Verde Islands off Africa we had fast Internet. In a tiny Hebrides village with five houses we had fast Internet.

DSC04629 (1)
Mopion Reef, SVG

And today we were anchored at Mopion Reef in the Grenadines. It is a sandbank with a grass roof. But, of course, it has fast Internet per LTE. I could log in to my server, communicate per WhatsApp, rework a few photos in the Cloud and deal with my emails.

The lesson is obvious. If you want fast Internet and live in Germany – emigrate.

Life at the reef

Yesterday we left our anchorage in the wind shadow at Rameau Bay and headed back out in to the Atlantic swell and to Tobago Cays National Park. This is a collection of tiny volcanic islands surrounded by coral reefs.

We navigated between the shoals, islets and reefs until we were just behind the sweeping Horseshoe Reef which protects us from the Atlantic swell but leaves us exposed to the 20 knot trade winds. We anchored in about four meters of caribbean water and were visited by the first turtle before we were even swimming. This is picture book Caribbean.

Today we took the dinghy across to a tiny island ( Baradal) for some snorkelling and exploring. In the water Neill was swimming face to face with a curious fish and on land we met a leguana, a snake and a tortoise.

We then once again got soaked dinghying across to a slightly larger island (Petit Bateau) where we climbed the hill for photoshooting, met a bigger leguana and found a bar.

At the bar we met Mandy and Neil who greeted us with “you must be the Rustler people.” They are anchored next to us in a 1973 ketch. Despite today being there silver wedding anniversary, they joined us for drinks and later a coffee “back at our place”. Nice, fun people.

Petit Nevis

We were tacking against the wind up the Bequia South Channel when we saw a few boats anchored in front of a small island. The anchorage was shown in our charts as having good holding so we decided to stop there for the night. As soon as we anchored two of the three other boats left so there was just a Canadian yacht and us anchored off this small uninhabited island.

We are not in Germany so, even anchored in the middle of nowhere, we had fast Internet and could do a quick bit of research. The island was until recently a whaling station with this being one of only four places in the world where locals can legally hunt whales. It is called Petit Nevis and is currently for sale for fifteen million US dollars.

We went for a swim with mask and snorkel and were amazed at the amount of life we found under us living on the rocky bottom. Neill had never snorkelled before and was really excited. Heidi had been before in Venezuela and was a bit more relaxed. But we both agree, we need another mask and snorkel.

The next morning we rowed across to the ruined jetty and went for a walk round the island. It has one idyllic beach but other than that is volcanic rock, cactuses and scrub. Yes it has a view to Mustique but we both agreed we wouldn’t be putting in a bid to buy it. Actually we can’t understand why anyone would buy an island. It isn’t like a boat that gives you freedom. it is just a lump of roxk that ties you down.

Port Elizabeth – Bequia

Early yesterday morning we sailed in to the bay at Port Elizabeth on the island of Bequia and in to the real Caribbean. The bay is surrounded by wooded hills spotted with wooden houses. At anchor there are many boats and locals float past selling water, ice, diesel, laundry services and taxi rides.

As we entered the bay a passing diving boat shouted across the water “welcome!” We passed what looked like an outing of the Royal Yacht Squadron all flying their white ensigns. Maybe that explains all the chaps called Julian and Rupert in town.

We anchored in see through water and dived on the anchor to check it was firmly in the sand. With the dinghy we rowed the short distance to the beach and then walked along to the customs house arriving just after they opened for the afternoon. Customs gave us a yachting permit for a month (which we can extend) and at the next counter immigration gave us six month visas. It all took about fifteen minutes and they let us pay in Euros.

Next stop was a mobile phone shop where we bought two SIM cards. We now have St. Vincent and Grenadines telephone numbers, 8GB of data, an hour of free Youtube a day and a flat for local calls. We can spend all day ringing each other or make some local friends quickly.

The locals all seemed friendly. Mostly they were sat in the shade selling stuff. We bought a local courtesy flag which is flying on our starboard spreader and some mangos & oranges. On the way back along the beach we stopped off under a huge tree for ice creams and beers while watching the locals repairing a boats engine while stood chest deep in the sea.

In the evening the beach bar turned the music up and we fell asleep rocking gently in paradise.

Caribbean sailing

It is now just over a week since we arrived in the Caribbean. As we have already written, we spent the first days in the less than lovely anchorage and shipyard in Le Marin on Martinique. Beautiful it wasn’t but we have a working engine.

The last few days we have been anchored between St. Annes and Le Marin in a secluded bay behind a reef and surrounded by Mangroves. Here you can jump in the sea for a swim before breakfast, enjoy the peace and quiet all day and then drink a Pinacolada or Baileys as the sun sets behind the palms. This is sailing as others dream of it.

Sunrise over St. Vincent

This morning we weighed anchor and left Martinique heading south. As soon as we were through the reef, we set the full genoa and then the full mainsail. The trade winds are still blowing constantly from the east so we are on the port tack with the boat healed over at about 15°. We are averaging over five knots in the correct direction and planning on passing downwind of St. Lucia and then continuing through the night to the Grenadines.

The sun is shining, Heidi is sunbathing life is good.

Marking the dinghy

Our insurance policy states that our dinghy needs to have an “identifiable mark”. When we bought the boat, the dinghy already had “Artemis” written on it in three places so Heidi brushed up the lettering a bit and we sent a photo to the insurance.

Here in the Caribbean everyone says “always lock your dinghy up!” and “don’t write the boats name on the dinghy!” The logic being that when your dinghy is on the beach, the bad guys know your boat is empty. We explained this to the insurers who agreed and said they would never mark the dinghy with the boats name (?)

Even the police lock up their boats in Martinique

Half a day with Acetone and Heidi’s work had been destroyed. Now we had a naked dinghy and needed an “identifiable mark” that had nothing to do with the boat but clearly said “It’s ours!” Sounded a bit contradictory.

Our solution is a generic email address that is now “permanently” marked on the dinghy and which passes any mails received on to both our email accounts. In addition, any one who writes to us on this address gets an autoreply with a thank you and our mobile phone numbers. The address has nothing to do with the boat or us so the potential thieves can spend an enjoyable evening looking for a fictive boat called “Soseies”. Hopefully if the dinghy is stolen and discarded some one will contact us. If not, at least we have complied with the insurance policy.

Amazing what good solutions we can work out when we have so much time to think about the problem. And thank you Gremmel lending us the generic address.

A new motor for Artemis

Those of you who follow our adventures may have noticed that, even though we own a sailing boat, our engine is a recurring theme. (repairs, a working engine, a hole in the water) We really try hard not to use the engine and are quite successful in keeping down the engine hours but when you need the engine you need it now. We have bad memories of drifting off Mallaig or Rhum with a none functioning engine and don’t want to try that again off a coral reef.

Since Gran Canaria the engine has been overheating after exhaust gases push the coolant out. Two guys in Tenerife looked at it but didn’t really have much idea so disconnected the fresh water heater.

In Martinique we went straight to Mecanique Plaisance because every one says they are “the people”. The technician came out to us at anchor and ran a few tests before declaring the heat exchanger (salt water to fresh water) dead. It was leaking internally so exhaust gases were pressurizing the fresh water coolant.

The engine is a three cylinder Yanmar (3HM35F) and as old as the boat (1992) which means spares are about as plentiful as rocking horse droppings, something else will be going wrong soon and it leaks a bit of everything all the time. We accepted the technicians opinion that a new engine made more sense.

They had a suitable engine with gearbox (3YM30AE) in the shop and Christoph (the technician) had time on Thursday and Friday so we agreed to be on the dock at 08:30 on Thursday for him to start.

Obviously every one was working on shipyard time so “08:30” was late morning, “an hour” was half a day and “finished on Friday” meant Saturday but whatever. The work looks professional and the motor works. And we don’t actually have any appointments the next few years.

The new motor is also a Yanmar. It is tiny compared to the old one, feels a bit more powerful and looks much much less rusty. It also has a three year manufacturers warranty and spare parts available worldwide. Sounds like fun.

Atlantic crossing – the numbers

We calculated that if we followed the great circle route from Mindelo (on Cape Verde) to Le Marin ( on Martinique), it would be a distance of 2091 nautical miles. The wind wasn’t always going our way so we actually travelled 2162 nautical miles which was 3.4% extra.

Information_SignArtemis has two foresails. A bigger Genoa right over the bow and a smaller Jib set further back. Normally we use one or the other depending on wind strength. But we also have two poles on the mast which we can set out horizontally and hold the Genoa out on one side and the Jib on the other. This is what we mean by “two foresails poled out”. Perfect for sailing straight downwind.

We took almost exactly 18 days so 432 hours which means our average speed was exactly 5 knots.

We did over half the journey (54%) with the two foresails poled out running directly downwind. The Parasailor and the Genoa both contributed 16% of the distance. The combination of Genoa and main was in use 14% of the distance and we used the motor for 0.2%!

The sails carried us on our way and the solar panels, wind generator and towed generator kept the electrics working so the motor only ran to lift and stow the anchor and enter the anchorage. It ran for two hours so the whole journey cost €4.